Dodgers Dugout: Why doesn’t Shohei Ohtani (and other Dodgers) get more All-Star votes?

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell, and how amazing that the Fourth of July holiday ended up happening on July 4. What are the odds? It’s like Cy Young never winning the Cy Young Award.

Reader Brian Crosby sent in a very interesting question last week, one which led to this week’s opening topic:

The question: How is it that Shohei Ohtani doesn’t get the most votes in All-Star balloting every year?

Here’s a guy who is the most remarkable MLB player since Babe Ruth. An ace pitcher and MVP hitter. In 2022, he finished in the top five in Cy Young and MVP voting. This season, he leads the NL in batting average and home runs and is third in RBIs, so a triple crown is a possibility.

He is also a superstar in two countries (at least).

So why isn’t he the top vote-getter? Bryce Harper was the top vote getter in the NL this season, receiving 2,037,523 votes in the first round. Ohtani received 1,773,404 votes and was sixth as far as total first-round votes goes, finishing behind Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Harper, Adley Rutschman and Alec Bohm. The Phillies, Yankees and Orioles obviously do a great job getting their fans to vote.

And it’s not just Ohtani. The Dodgers lead the league in attendance every year, usually drawing about 600,000 more fans than the second-highest team. Theoretically, they should have a huge advantage in voting. But the last Dodger to lead the majors in voting was Davey Lopes in 1980.

I think there are a number of factors here.

1. For Ohtani specifically, he played for the Angels until this year. The Angels have the worst marketing skills since the people who came up with the “New Coke” campaign.

2. The Angels, and now the Dodgers, don’t do the best job with “Get out the vote” campaigns. The Dodgers not only produce more attendance than any team, and there are Dodgers fans in many cities as evidenced by the amount of them in other stadiums. The East Coast teams in particular are rabid about letting their fans know how to vote and how often to vote each day. Out here in L.A., I got emails to vote for Giants players every day, telling me exactly how to vote and how often I could vote. I received very little from the Dodgers. Many readers have emailed me to say they have no idea how to vote and are confused when they go to the Dodgers website. Anecdotal evidence to be sure, but when you have more than a couple of dozen readers (and to be a subscriber I assume you must be a pretty big Dodgers fan) ask how to vote for the All-Star game each year, you have to figure the Dodgers aren’t reaching all of their big fans, ones who would vote multiple times.

3. Ohtani is very, very private. What do we know about him? Almost nothing. Look how overboard the media went when he showed a picture of his dog. When you are that private, it’s hard for fans to “fall in love” with you. Respect his ability, sure. But it’s not the kind of passion that will lead to people going out of their way to vote for you.

4. Dodgers fans might be more discerning and vote who they think is best rather than blindly voting for their team’s players. (Of course, Ohtani is the best DH in baseball this season, so that doesn’t make total sense.)

And there are probably other factors too that I’m not thinking of. And none of this is scientific, just my best guesses after talking to and reading what Dodgers fans have to say over the years. I remember the days, before online voting, when Dodgers ushers had two sets of All-Star ballots to give to fans: One unmarked ballot, and one pre-marked ballot with all the Dodgers selected.

Is it the end of the world that a Dodgers player doesn’t lead all players in All-Star balloting? Of course not. It’s just one of those fun things to ponder. Remember when there were fun things to ponder, and we didn’t get hung up on every win and loss?

If you have an idea about why the Dodgers underperform in All-Star balloting, send it along to me at [email protected]. I’ll post the best ones in a future newsletter.

And if you want to vote in the second round of balloting, go here.

Cavan Biggio

I’ve been trying to figure out why the Dodgers acquired Cavan Biggio. He’s a career .226 hitter and hasn’t had an above-average year on offense since 2020. And he’s not exactly Ozzie Smith on defense. He’s not terrible, but with Chris Taylor and Kiké Hernández, they already had their quota of utility players who aren’t hitting well. This season, he is hitting .197 overall, .188 with the Dodgers. But when he kicked that ball against the Giants, drawing a costly error, it occurred to me what must have happened.

Let me recreate the scene, Andrew Friedman talking to the person who scouted Biggio.

Friedman: What do you think about Biggio?
Scout: Below average bat, cold glove.
Friedman: Gold Glove? That’s great thanks!
Scout: Wait ... Andrew? Andrew?

Thanks everyone! Make sure you tip your waiter on the way out.

Getting hot

On June 6, Chris Taylor was hitting .095/.198/.107 and was the worst hitter in the league. Since then, he has hit .385/.448/.731, going 10 for 26, with one double, one triple, two homers, three walks and only five strikeouts. He still has some work to do to climb out of the season-long hole he dug for himself, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Why did that happen?

Got some questions after Sunday’s game as to why the Dodgers would leave James Paxton in the game Sunday when he was obviously struggling (he gave up nine runs in four innings). Well, they used eight relievers the day before and wanted to avoid using a bunch of relievers again.

You have to keep in mind something that goes against what Dodgers fans were trained to believe under Walter Alston and Tommy Lasorda: Once the team has established it is going to win the division, the results of each individual game aren’t paramount. It’s all about making sure everyone is fresh for the postseason. Lasorda wanted to win every game. Fans live game to game. And the current Dodgers want to win every game, but not at the expense of long-range goals. Paxton came out only because he had reached almost 100 pitches. If he had been at 75 pitches instead of 97, he probably would have remained in the game.

“I was ready to go back out there for the fifth — I was ready to go as long as they needed me to go,” Paxton said. “But Doc told me I was done. I wanted to go deep into the game for these guys. It just wasn’t my day.”

Roberts: “It speaks to his character, his appreciation for his teammates and being a good teammate. But where his pitch count was at, I’m not in the business of trying to put a pitcher in harm’s way.”

In short, You can manage differently when you have a big division lead.

Scheduling note

There will be no newsletter at the end of the week because of the holiday. I hope you have a fun time in celebration (of either the nation’s independence, or the fact I’m not doing a newsletter, your choice).

Up next

Tuesday: Arizona (Ryne Nelson, 5-6, 5.69 ERA) at Dodgers (Bobby Miller, 1-1, 6.75 ERA), 7:10 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, 1020 KTNQ

Wednesday: Arizona (*Jordan Montgomery, 6-5, 6.03 ERA) at Dodgers (Gavin Stone, 9-2, 2.73 ERA), 7:10 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, 1020 KTNQ

Thursday: Arizona (Zac Gallen, 6-4, 2.83 ERA) at Dodgers (Landon Knack, 1-1, 2.08 ERA), 6:10 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, 1020 KTNQ

*-left-handed

In case you missed it

Dodgers bat boy on saving Shohei Ohtani from line drive: ‘Just doing my job’

How Yohan Ramírez and Michael Petersen became Dodgers’ latest bullpen success stories

Shaikin: Scott Boras is 71. How much longer does baseball’s most famous agent plan to work?

Miguel Rojas is shining at shortstop. Will Dodgers keep him there when Mookie Betts returns?

And finally

The Dodgers compete against the Oakland A’s on “The Super Teams.” Watch and listen here.